Cryptoland

The cryptocurrency industry has minted a new class of millionaires and billionaires with grand aspirations for the industry and the power it wields. In this episode of Cryptoland, we catch up with some of the earliest investors present at the Bitcoin 2013 conference and reckon with how the cryptocurrency industry has evolved over the past decade and look at where it's going.

Bitcoin uses as much energy as a small country to secure the blockchain. Is crypto mining strengthening America's power grid and hastening the transition to renewables, or propping up the ailing fossil fuel industry while making the climate crisis worse? It depends on who you ask.

In the beginning there was only Bitcoin, but today there is a dizzying array of crypto projects promising eye-popping returns to investors. In this new Wild West, doge-themed memecoins and complex 'decentralized finance' - or DeFi projects are making some people rich and ruining others due to scams, hacks, and plain old poor investing.

'Be your own bank' reflects the core libertarian ethos of Bitcoin. But what happens when it goes wrong? A shocking amount of Bitcoins have been lost by their owners either because they lost their passwords or lost their wallets. In this episode of Cryptoland, we follow a father-son duo who run a business unlocking Bitcoin wallets for investors who could be rich - if only they could remember their passwords.

Sex workers routinely face discrmination from banks, credit card companies, and payment services. In response, some performers and startups have turned to the blockchain. But is it a solution, or merely a Band-Aid? We visit the Spankchain hype house in Las Vegas to see what this world looks like in actions, and speaks to sex worker and author Liara Roux about how Bitcoin fits into sex work.

All over the world criminals are locking up important computer systems and demanding crypto as a ransom. So-called ransomware is officially an epidemic, and cryptocurrencies sit at the nexus of the crisis. In this episode of Cryptoland, we sift through the fallout of a ransomware attack at schools in Afton, Missouri, and our panelists discuss the history and current role of crypto in this booming type of cyber-crime.